The Secret of River Twygz
Super Paper Mario is notably darker than most other games in its franchise. It features Mario and his friends attempting to stop a void which erases anything that comes in contact with it from existence. There is also a species hunted to the point of extinction, a villain snapping her neck to transform into a gigantic, nightmarish spider form, and a world of complete nothingness with disturbing background music. However, what has to be the most notorious part of the game is the Underwhere, a place which is based on the Underworld from Greek mythology. The place itself isn't that creepy, but what scares people the most about this place is the River Twygz, based on the River Styx. If you swim down to the riverbed, elongated hands will appear in every direction and a cacophony of unnerving, distorted noises start playing in the background, some of which seem to be voices that could be crying for help. The entire river is certainly scary, but I have discovered something that makes the place much more so. One evening, I was watching the news when I received an email from my friend, Henry. It said this: "Good evening! Do you remember that Paper Mario game we used to play? You know, the one for the Wii? Well, I just found a creepy secret in World 7-1. If you head to the bottom of the river, flip to 3D with Mario, then flip back as soon as he takes damage, a hand that wasn't there before will be waiting. Flip back into 3D, position yourself where the hand is, and a split second before it grabs you, switch into 2D and the hand will drain Mario's life. This will lead to a hidden passage inside the river. I want you to see it for yourself. Also, back up your data in other save files because this easter egg WILL make the file inaccessible as soon as you find it. I hope the rest of your day will be fun!" A secret in River Twygz? That really piqued my interest, as I have gotten into a lot of horror media lately, specifically the Silent Hill series. I immediately headed up to the second floor of my house and searched the boxes in my closet, When I found Super Paper Mario, I inserted the disc into my Wii and got started. As soon as the game finished loading, I copied my save file with the most completion onto the other 3 spots. I opened file A and headed to world 7-1. When I reached the river, I sank down to the bottom and began to follow the procedures that Henry had given to me. Sure enough, a hand would appear and drain Mario's hearts. Just before the meter reached zero, the screen suddenly went black. I figured that this would be the start of the easter egg. The "beginning of chapter" screen appeared, but the chapter was listed as "7-?". The text below read: "Riverbed Passage". What I thought would be a fun experience turned into a nightmare as the screen faded out. Mario was swimming in an underwater cavern made up of dark brown granite walls that had textures resembling faces. The background was a dark navy blue, and there was no entrance into the area. I had Mario swim through the passage for about a minute before coming to a dead end. I flipped into 3D and found a crevice in the wall, which I slipped through. As soon as I made it past that point, the 3D meter vanished from sight, the health meter became full and the serene, oceanic blue background instantly shifted into a pitch-black color. I tried flipping back into 2D, but the A button would produce no effect. I also couldn't change characters or Pixls. For the first minute in the tunnel, the background music was silence except for an underwater ambiance that reflected what Mario was swimming through. When the darkness came, however, the noise died away, and a different sound began to fade in. At first, it appeared to be some sort of whisper, like a spirit calling out to our protagonist. Eventually, the voices grew in intensity and soon resembled the distorted sounds heard in the River Twygz Bed. This time, I could grasp what they were saying much more clearly. They spoke in cryptic and frantic tones, with phrases such as "we are trapped", "our souls keep wandering, no way out" "some would fall in", and "save us, please" seeming to come from the darkness at random. When the sounds were at their loudest point, the hands started to materialize. Dozens upon dozens of these ghostly appendages were reaching out for Mario and hung from the granite walls, which had turned a sickly violet. I had the plumber race through the water as he was escaping the hands' grasp, and at that moment I felt bad for him. Mario, who has maybe has been across the entire universe by now, has suddenly found himself in a deep, submerged passage with no exit, and all the while these hands are attempting to drag him down, which is probably making him fear for his life. And what will happen when the others find out that he has disappeared? I didn't have that much time to think, because a door in front of me suddenly swung open, leading to what I call the Chamber of Terror. I named the area like that because I believed that, in the Mario universe, this very room was the embodiment of terror itself, if the world isn't about to end. The purple side walls suddenly gave way into a completely black abyss that extended for what seemed like an eternity. All around the place were the hands, but they weren't trying to get Mario this time. One of them took hold of him and aligned him on a blood-red pedestal, which I inferred was in the center of the chamber. When he was let go, the hands stopped moving and chattering at an instant. They all appeared to be watching Mario as if this was a kind of underworld ceremony or ritual. Then, slowly but surely, they started to sing. Multiple voices seemed to rise and lower in harmony. At first, I thought it was rather calming, but then, without warning, the hands produced the same unearthly sounds that they had made in the riverbed. It soon developed into the River Twygz Bed theme, with clear voices, but the track became more distorted the longer Mario stood on the platform. At one point the voices were so clustered and all over the place that I believed that they could either be cheering on or scorning our hero. Then, two hands emerged from all four sides of the screen and picked up Mario. They strangled him, and his life meter was getting lower and lower by each second. When his hearts reached zero, the game over screen did not show up at all. Instead, the hands loosened their grip on Mario, and he sank down to the bottom of the room in silence. Never before had I seen such a disturbing end for a character in a Mario game. Even the main character's deaths in multiple games were tame compared to this since Mario could live after these deaths. This Mario, however, did not live. His lifeless corpse was still situated on the pedestal, and a few seconds later, the singing ceased at once, but the voices continued to speak among themselves. Just before the screen faded into black again, I could hear the last of the hands stating this: "He who has sunk into the river must stay. His soul cannot egress from the place, and he must become one with the hands. Once that has been done, there is no exit from River Twygz." Then, silence. Now I understood why this secret was hidden away from the public for years, and nobody had found it until now. Our hero has just met a very untimely demise, and his body is probably there to stay forever. Out of curiosity, I loaded file A again to see if the game resumed as normal, but to no avail. Mario was still slumped down at the bottom of the chamber, but he seemed to be a bit more emaciated this time. The screen turned black again and brought me back to the title screen. I tried loading it again, and the plumber's condition looked worse. Each time I selected File A, Mario's appearance continued to deteriorate until he was nothing but a pile of bones in an unmarked location accessed from a river. The last time I loaded that save file, Mario was not present. I heard one of the hands say something, possibly telling a story: "This river was not always dangerous. Back then it was very peaceful. However, as its fabrication began for the use of others, some people fell in and drowned during the process. This was back in ancient times. One day, a group of merchants were on a boat, crossing the river. It was going well when something seemed to tug at the vehicle's underside. They tried to save themselves, but it was too late. The ancients fell into the river and were dragged under by the hands below. Their spirits were also located in those hands. This has to be told to keep the area safe for others. One cannot enter the river unless they have special permission. It is simply our nature to try to drag those people to the riverbed. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do. Our new bodies are being controlled against our will, not doing anything to help us live better lives. Something has to be done. An accomplishment that will allow all of us to be safe at last..." After the speech, file A erased itself, and I had to copy it from one of the other files. I finally realized the truth about those hands. They are souls of the people who fell into the river and didn't survive, but they can do nothing but watch their eternal lives unfold. Furthermore, I did more research on the hands and the easter egg, but no data could be found on the Internet. Perhaps this copy was hacked to include the secret? Whether or not this is the case, I still consider this moment one of the darkest that I have experienced in video game history. I sure hope not to face anything like this ever again. (NOTE: All mentions about the easter egg are not true.) Category:Pages made by the creator of everything. Category:Mario Category:Super Paper Mario Category:Creepypasta Category:Creepypastas/Trollpastas Category:Secrets Category:River Twygz Bed Category:Video Games